Monday, May 25, 2015

Being a musician I have played with a lot of people. And there's one thing that always makes me laugh (and cringe, and annoy me). It's the idea that power or "oomph" to music can be accomplished the wrong way.

For instance, the easiest way to mask a bad song and seemingly give it power, just be louder. Yeah, this sounds like crap, but if I just play it louder it will be better. Usually the musician feels this is working, the audience, not so much. Another trick of false power is speed, if I just play this faster it will be better.

In talking with someone yesterday, I wonder if we do this in conversation. Do we do this when we want to make a point? What I have to say is weak, so I'll yell it. That denotes power to what I'm saying. SEE, I IF TYPE IN ALL CAPS IT MAKES MY POINT EVEN MORE!!!!!!!!!

Proverbs 15 starts with "a gentle answer turns away anger" (in some translations anger is "wrath"). Maybe if you feel the need to yell your point, you should examine what your point is and come up with a better one (or a better what to explain it).

Monday, May 11, 2015

Those that know me know I'm a big Montreal Canadiens fan. I love this time of year with playoff hockey, but the other night I was not happy at all. They lost with less than two seconds left in the game. I was doing everything in my power not to yell and wake up the house.

But there's a reason they lost. In the last minute of the game the score was 1-1, and both teams reacted differently to that situation. Montreal decided to go on the defensive and do everything they could to control the game and send it into overtime. No rash decisions, no big plays. Just get to overtime.

Tampa did the opposite. They blitzed. They went for the puck. They took shots. They were not content to simply get to overtime, they wanted to win the game.

It made me think about faith. How many people see "overtime" as a sure thing and are simply coasting to get there? Living defensively, keeping control, no rash decisions or actions. It's a sure thing, let's just wait it out until we get there. And how many people are playing to "win" at this life? Loving boldly, doing things that may be a little dangerous, living like this is overtime and what we do now counts.

I love my team, but they did the wrong thing. This life wasn't intended to be a placeholder until heaven. We can't just sit back and coast there. This life counts. What we do now counts. How we live, who he love, how we worship and show Jesus to the world now counts.

Monday, May 04, 2015

If everyone thinks "I want to give someone else a chance to pray", no one prays.
If everyone thinks "I want to give someone else a chance to experience the mission trip", there is no mission trip.
If everyone thinks "I want to give someone else a chance to go to that dinner so I'll give up my spot", there is no dinner.

At FIRE & WATER sometimes we have Scripture on the screen and I always let a student read it. A while ago a few students really wanted to do it so they started scrambling to be first to read. You know what it led to? More people scrambling to be the first to read. One time the entire group just read it in unison because they couldn't figure out who read it first and no one wanted to give up the opportunity to read.

If you really want to give someone else the chance to be a part of something, don't step back and give them the example of not doing it. Give the example of being excited and being a part, that's more likely to get others involved and being a part of whatever is going on.